Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/331

Rh  &emsp; My dear Sir: I received a most gratifying letter from you some time ago. Ever since its receipt I have had an idea, held in a sort of indefinite thoughtless way, that we should meet, and that then I might acknowledge all your consideration and kindness to me.

But you have suggested, I am informed, difficulties in the way of your coming to me which I fully appreciate; and those not less insurmountable seem to prevent my coming to you.

You may be sure that I should be most glad to hear your views at length, in this time of anxiety. I wish I might ask you to write to me as to one whose desire is to merit the good opinion of the men who have trusted him, but one who knows little of what awaits him in his new sphere of duty.

&emsp; Hon.. 

 &emsp; My dear Sir: I gladly respond to your very kind invitation to express to you my views “at length,” and I do so not without a strong feeling of responsibility. The anxiety of which you speak, I fully understand and share. Permit me first a few remarks on the general aspect of the situation.

I said in my letter of November 15th that in my opinion the character and fate of your Administration would be determined by its treatment of the civil service question. In repeating this I do not underestimate the importance of other subjects of public interest with which you will come into contact. But they are mostly subject to